Story Highlights

After reading comments in a Sept. 2 story about Lincoln County backing away from lodging a protest against an application for renewal and expansion of water diversion points by the village of Ruidoso, a former village manager said it’s obvious some of those speaking didn’t understand the difference between irrigation, domestic and municipal water rights.

The result of the discourse on the application was an invitation being issued to New Mexico State Engineer Tom Blaine to come to a commission meeting and discuss a reevaluation of the flow of water on the Rio Ruidoso.

Commission Chairman Preston Stone voted against a motion not to file a protest, but it passed with the invitation to Blaine. Stone contended that whether an application is for renewal of a point of diversion is not relevant.

“When we are talking economic development and growth of the county, water is a top priority,” he said. “When you start renewing water rights, increasing or changing diversion, the first thing they need to do is evaluate the water, and I think the state engineer’s office is very delinquent in doing that evaluation of the source and quantity of the water.”

“The Upper Hondo is totally adjudicated and appropriated. The three types of users all have their adjudicated water rights,” former village manager Frank Potter, a source on local water issues, said after reading the article.

State statutes on water law are clear on applications, points of diversion and water right transfers, he said.

“There is no such thing as a reevaluation of a source and quantity of water,” he said. “The county is not a water right holder in this application and is not affected. Typical municipal diversions are applied to a water diversion number that covers a broad point of diversion and numerous sites. The diversion of water is highly monitored by the OSE for irrigation, domestic wells and municipal diversion.

“In the Ruidoso area, we all have our respective water rights and no one is going to take any away from anyone else.”

Unfortunately, the OSE is backlogged, Potter said. “A date needs to be set for hearings on all of Ruidoso’s water rights transfer applications” and the hearings are the right place to ask the questions, Potter said.

In New Mexico, use of water is tied to ownership of water rights, which can be sold or temporarily transferred. A water right grants the owner the use of water from a source that could be a river, stream, irrigation ditch, pond or from groundwater such as a well.

An adjudication determines who owns what water rights and in what amount, according to the state engineer’s website. “They (adjudications) are required by statute. The purpose of adjudication is to obtain a judicial determination and definition of water rights within each stream system or underground basin so that the State Engineer may effectively perform water rights administration and meet New Mexico’s interstate stream obligations.”

About 20 percent of the state has been adjudicated. More than 50 percent of the state has adjudications in progress. The Office of the State Engineer is charged with administering the state's water resources and has authority over the supervision, measurement, appropriation, and distribution of all surface and groundwater in New Mexico, including streams and rivers that cross state boundaries. He also can issue permits for domestic wells.